#White christmas song sergeant Patch#
#White christmas song sergeant free#

It is rare for a goose to lay outside the spring season between February and May. It will be a few months before we see for ourselves, though, because goose eggs are seasonal. Their higher yolk-to-white ratio means they have a richer, creamier texture, which is why they were traditionally the egg of choice for European delicacies such as crème brûlée and homemade pasta.

Some people say they’re three times as tasty, too. And what they lack in quantity, compared to chickens’ egg-laying capacities, our dames will make up for in egg size: a goose’s egg is three times as large as a chicken’s egg - big enough to fill your palm. While wild geese lay only 5 to 10 eggs per year, domestic geese can lay up to 50. He has been so diligent and successful with his patrols that our resident coyote has given up his hillside watch, prompting my husband, Russell, to add the rank of Sergeant Major to Spruce’s name. But Spruce is constantly on the lookout and will honk to warn the rest of the farm of danger, stretching tall and flapping his wings to appear gigantic when a predator is near. With increasingly bold coyotes around our property, and hawks overhead, we had been suffering more losses than usual. One of the main reasons we decided to acquire our Spruce is that ganders are excellent protectors - not only of their own gaggles, but of other farm fowl as well. Geese offer another fringe benefit to the backyard farmer.

You should never get just one goose, though like other flock animals, geese are fiercely social. A small pool or pond for dunking is the one significant adjustment a backyard farmer will need to make for a gaggle.

#White christmas song sergeant free#

Our gaggle can eat the same feed as the chickens do, and they love crushed corn, but their favorite food is grass and weeds.Īllowing geese to free range on your lawn will allow you to retire your lawnmower, even as your grass thrives thanks to the gift of natural fertilizer. Domesticated geese can also be kept outside an enclosure, as they won’t wander far from their home. They can happily share a coop with chickens, though they don’t roost perched up high, so they need their own simple house filled with hay to nestle in. Their feathers were so delightfully soft in our arms that we joked about bringing the birds into our own bed instead, to use as pillows. That experience revealed why goose down is so coveted. That first night we had to chase Spruce and his dames around the yard and carry them one by one to their new beds. The day we brought our small gaggle home, they wouldn’t go into their new goose house at dusk. That’s one of the reasons we adopted our four. Now they are rare birds, critically endangered species, according to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. They were relied upon for weeding up until the 1950s or so, when herbicides took over their jobs. Head perpetually high in the air, he proudly marches his gaggle of three Pilgrim goose dames - we call them “the tantes,” meaning aunties - Gertrude, Greta, and Gisela, around our yard.īoth breeds were common, especially in the South, and appreciated for their eggs, meat, and fat - and for the farm work they did.

#White christmas song sergeant Patch#

Spruce, our gander, is a white Cotton Patch goose, a breed known for its friendly temperament. Geese are another story, as we learned when we welcomed four goslings onto our farm this fall. Spruce the goose holds his head high when patrolling the yard. Domestic turkeys are bred to be on dinner tables before they’re six months old, when they begin to become too heavy for their own legs. Even our marvelous Monsieur Dinde was doomed before a year was up. It’s just that young turkeys, unlike chickens and geese, are prone to illness and malnutrition. We set out to raise 10 of them last spring and lost five before they were grown. And turkeys require a costly, protein-rich diet. After our experiment with raising them, we learned they are right.īefore you can eat a bird, you’ve got to feed it. But here we are in Wellfleet with a turkey ready to roast and a small gaggle of geese grazing on the winter weeds outside.Įuropean farmers consider turkeys a foolishly expensive luxury. If our backyard farm were in my home country of Austria, we’d be trussing up a plump goose for our Christmas feast right about now.